#for russians not to be able to read navalnys last words!

[russianprotesters]

Ok so - I know Patriot , Navalny's memoir, isn't available in russia, but is there a way to get it to people? I know sales are important but it's more important to get Navalny's words to russia.

Would it be possible to email the entries for each day, like Dracula Daily, to subscribers? Or some other similar method to get it to people? --

[alyisintrouble]

… The last thing I want to say. I receive lots of letters nowadays. And each second one of them finishes with the phrase ‘Russia will be free’. It’s a cool slogan, I usually say it too, repeat it, write it, chant at protests, but I constantly think - something’s missing in it. I, of course, want Russia to be free, it’s necessary but not enough. It can’t be a goal in itself.

I want Russia to be rich which matches its national wealth. I want that national wealth to be spread rightly that everyone would get a fair share of oil and gas pie. I want us not only to be free but also have, you know, a normal healthcare. For men to live up to retirement age because half of men in Russia wouldn’t be able to do it, situation with women isn’t better either. I want education to be normal and people to be able to study normally. I, of course, would like people getting paid the same salary for the same job in Russia as in an average European country, because now it’s much less. Anyone: a policeman, a programmer, a journalist, literally anyone – everyone is getting paid much less.

I would like lots of other things to happen in our country. It’s necessary to fight not so much with the fact that Russia is not free but with the fact that it’s unhappy in all directions. We have everything, but nevertheless we are some kind of unhappy country. Read Russian literature, great Russian literature — oh God, there would be only descriptions of misfortune and suffering. We are a very unhappy country and we cannot escape from the circle of this misfortune. And, of course, we want to. Therefore, I propose to change the slogan and say that Russia should be not only free, but also happy. Russia will be happy.

- Alexey Navalny’s last words in court.

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Vladimir Kara-Murza is spot on about how we in the West must fight President Vladimir Putin. 

Some excellent quotes:

His predecessors, in their own different ways, tried to placate a strongman who never hid his desire to solidify authoritarian control at home while furthering his ambitions on the world stage.

Not just in America. Here in Britain, our government has an embarrassing history of appeasing Putin, most notably in and around 2006, when our government refused to act swiftly against the Kremlin for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. 

We have since learned that the then Home Secretary sat on evidence implicating Putin in this crime, for fear that its revelation would damage diplomatic relations with Russia. 

Many Western leaders assumed that anti-democratic abuses in Russia could be ignored as long as they can “do business” with Putin on other issues.

Absolutely correct. 

For his part, Biden noted that he had “looked into Putin’s eyes and saw no soul.”

A good laugh from this, and very true. Putin likes pontificating about spirituality, yet had no compunction in trying to murder a husband and father last August, simply because he feared criticism of his regime. This man has no respect for basic decency, let alone the rule of law. He is mentally unfit for office, and belongs in prison. 

(By the way, I have heard that President Biden is an expert on foreign policy). 

It is not for the United States, or any other foreign power, to effect political change in Russia. Russians should — and will — do this themselves.

Absolutely SPOT ON. I want Russian democracy to be upheld by the Russian people. They should be able to choose their own leaders. Currently, with Putin raping the Constitution so that he can run for power until 2036, this is not the case. Russians should continue to agitate against the fake constitutional referendum result, only achieved by rigging over 20 million votes. 

Contrary to Kremlin propaganda, those of us who oppose Putin are not asking foreigners for money, political support or regime change. All we ask from the West is that it stay true to its values and stop enabling the Putin regime’s kleptocracy on a global scale.

Agreed. For example, while Putin likes calling Navalny a “blogger”, he also insists that the dissident is being funded by foreign powers. In fact, Navalny’s FBK is funded solely by Russian donors, and he made it clear that he did not have to rely on foreign money. 

“sanctions aren’t working because the West has refrained from sanctioning the people with the money.”

Words of Alexei Navalny, about why sanctions against Russia have failed. This is because many Western nations, including my own, do not want to upset the Russian investors in our economies. So they shuffle their feet over financial sanctions, because they do not want to lose Russian money, currently tied up in many British institutions and businesses. 

Financial sanctions, like those promoted under the Magnitsky Act, are the only way to cripple Putin’s global criminal enterprise. Putin does not respect the rule of law. He has no integrity and no decency. The only thing he loves is money, as this documentary about his secret palace shows. 

When Putin realises that his money is not safe abroad, he gets worried. Consequently, he has expended time and energy getting lawyers and businessmen to intimidate and bribe Western politicians so that they will not adopt the the Act, which recommends asset freezes and visa denials for suspected human rights abusers in Russia and abroad. 

Putin’s friends hide his stolen funds through various proxies and shell companies, much of it in Western nations. Pretty ironic, when you consider how RussiaToday loves posting articles claiming that the West is collapsing and only Russia is stable, because of Putin! 

Yet this investigation shows how much money the chief of RussiaToday has swindled from the taxpayer, much of which is held in a network of offshore companies. Thieves such as Margarita Simonyan have made many enemies in their home country, and are under constant threat of investigation by opposition parties. 

Word to Western nations: name and shame the abusers. Freeze those assets. Tear up those visas. 

Above all, the Biden administration must not equate Russia with its abusive regime. Too many Western leaders fall into this trap. “Punish the scoundrels, not the country,” was Nemtsov’s message to Biden at their meeting.

AGREED! I reject Russophobic sentiment. 

My problem is with President Putin, his friends, allies, enablers, propagandists, and thugs. I support the ordinary and decent Russians fighting against his criminal enterprise. 

Russia is not a miserable country, as is often portrayed in Western films. On the contrary, it is an incredibly beautiful country with a rich culture. I have been fascinated with it for almost 12 years now, particularly in terms of history, literature, and its language. 

One of the best ways to defeat Putin is to show that we have no animosity towards Russian people, as he enjoys using paranoid conspiracy theories to inflame xenophobic sentiment against the West. 

As Kara-Murza suggests:

And it should resume the normal issuance of visas, giving young Russians more opportunities to engage with their American peers. Nothing counters false propaganda narratives like seeing the reality.

Though it is worth pointing out that, no doubt thanks to Putin’s robbery, many Russians either want to leave or have already left. This is sad, and will have negative economic effects. 

Either way, greater cultural exchange with Russian people still brings great benefits. For one thing, the West is not collapsing. We’re not perfect, but we have enough leaders who believe in the rule of law, such that the kind of criminality Putin engages in would be unthinkable in many Western nations. 

A great read from Kara-Murza, twice poisoned for his advocacy against Putin. Highly recommend! 

[zhongskiy]

Post Numero Uno

My name on Tumblr is inspired by the first syllable in “zhongwen” and the last syllable in the word “russkiy” as Chinese and Russian are the languages I’m going to focus on on Tumblr. 

I'm starting this blog to keep track of what I've been doing to stay on top of (and not lose) my Russian and and also take notes on how I've been learning Chinese. I’d like to find people who are studying/know Russian and/or Chinese to talk about the learning process, swap resources, tips and tales :)

For Russian I try to watch YouTube videos with a tendency towards vloggers that talk about politics, culture and also anything funny. I also try to read and hope to post words I learned from recently reading два рассказа Солженицына - Матренин Двор и Правая кисть. 

For Chinese I’m mostly focused on learning how to read and write characters ultimately in order to be able to understand the content of basic news articles. I’d ideally like to learn how to speak (and listen too) but am very hesitant without the help of a native speaker. On the other hand, I do really enjoy the process of learning new characters and working on better recognizing sentence structure, grammar and being able to overall understand the point of the article. For this I have been using BBC’s Chinese website and I’ve also been using 人民报日 because the app is really easy to use. I mostly try and figure out headlines since they require enough work to begin with :)

______________________________________________________________________

I watched some of Навальный's videos and here are some new words I found.

катавасия - confusion, row, muddle (I'd never seen or heard this word before and it doesn't even seem to have an identifiable root; синонимы - суматоха, суета, беспорядок). A little googling showed me that the way Navalny used  the colloquial version while the original meaning, thanks to википедия, is the following:

Катава́сия (др.-греч. κατά-βᾰσις, καταβᾰσία — «схождение вниз, спуск, сошествие») в православном богослужении — песнопение, которое поётся на утрене в праздничные и воскресные дни в заключение канона; после каждой песни канона следует соответствующая катавасия. Катавасия поётся по мелодико-ритмической модели ирмоса. В различное время богослужебного года положены определённые уставом катавасии[1]. Название происходит от византийской практики спускаться певчим с обоих клиросов и сходиться в центре храма для совместного пения катавасии.

If I'm not mistaken he was using it in relation to the new church that had been built в подмосковье, так-называемый "храм бога войны" since it is to be the new church for министерство обороны, so perhaps there was a unconscious connection to the subject and the primary and secondary meaning of the word? It sounds interesting at least. In the same clip he cited a священник who made critical remarks about the new Defense Ministry church and even referred to it (the священник) as a "языческое капище" meaning a pagan temple. If I remember correctly he was promptly kicked out of the church he served at in Novosibirsk.

Another word is Изнывать, изныть (from ныть (ною, ноешь, ноют) meaning to ache) which means to pine for. He was using it in the context of парад победы в Москве, и говорил, что " [вся страна] изнывает от желания увидеть еще один парад." Sarcastically, of course.

One interesting graphic that was shown during his broadcast was about the years the парад пробеды has been done and I had no idea that, apart from important anniversaries, mainly the 20th and the 40th in 1965 and 1985 respectively, there was not a lot of fanfare around the idea of a parade until after Yeltsin came to power.

I also watched a clip from Navalny's channel where a woman interviewed who I assume were small business owners and not merely the employees of such establishments. It was interesting to hear how little some of them thought to depend on the government given the impending "нерабочие дни" в течение почти двух(?) месяцев. Some of them were ultimately able to receive some support and it seemed that all of them had received tax abatement on paying taxes for Q1, Q2, and Q3, but as one guy pointed out that now meant that they would be on the hook to pay millions of rubles upfront in October. Another girl pointed out that ideally the government would cancel taxes for the entire year and ask малый и средний бизнес to start paying them in 2021 while they get back on their feet and see what the economic situation will be in Moscow (where it was filmed) and Russia.

Two words I learned here are: уйма - (I feel I rarely see the уй combination much in Russian, the only other word that comes to mind immediately is of course уйти) which means a lot or many. I think the guy was talking about how there were "уйма налогов заплатить." Another guy was talking about how critical МСБ is to the economy? the capital? I totally forget how he actually used this word which is котлован - углубление в земле, предназначенное для закладки фундамента каких-либо сооружений  or put more simply a foundation pit. Some of the business peeps talked about how hard it was to plan for re-opening due to the мэрия frequently changing their plans. The "уйма" guy noted that some businesses, bruised by the "нерабочие дни", had simply decided to completely close down because they were already on thin ice and, with the future being completely unpredictable, they didn't want to risk the chance that they would merely find themselves in an even worse financial situation down the road.

уйма - many, a lot

катлован - foundation pit

капище - pagan temple

изнывать, изныть - to pine for, pine from

катавасия - mess, confusion, disorder

[courtneytincher]

What if he dies? &c.

For years now, some of us have said, “It’s amazing he’s still alive.” We’re talking about Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition. (The previous such leader, Boris Nemtsov, was murdered within sight of the Kremlin in 2015.) Over and over, Navalny has been attacked -- physically, that is. In the past few days, it is possible he has been the victim of a poison attack.They’re not shy about poisoning, Putin’s guys. (For a story about Navalny, go here.)A question: What if Navalny dies? What will the reaction of the rest of the world be, and of the United States in particular? (Years ago, we enjoyed the designation “Leader of the Free World.”) Will there be a shrug, as in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? A statement of regret from the State Department? Something a bit sterner, possibly?Will a mouthy, conscientious member of Congress say something?These are things to be thought of, even now.Last year, President Trump was asked who ought to be held accountable for the Khashoggi murder. “Maybe the world should be held accountable,” he answered, “because the world is a vicious place.”Next time, we will do better, I hope.• Here is a report from last week:> A prominent LGBT rights campaigner has been found dead with multiple stab wounds and signs of strangulation in the Russian city of St Petersburg.> > The body of a 41-year-old woman was found in bushes near her home in the city on Sunday, local police said.> > Relatives and friends later named the victim as Yelena Grigoryeva . . .> > Ms Grigoryeva, who had reportedly received death threats, regularly campaigned for human rights in Russia.They are possibly the most careless people in the world, these Russian activists. They keep losing their lives.• In this new era of strongmen, who will defend democracy? Who will stick up for it, even fight for it? Look to the streets of Hong Kong and Moscow, where democracy protesters are being beaten by thugs. I admire them no end -- the protesters, that is, not the thugs. Would I be among those protesters? Would you?For myself, I can’t answer with confidence.I wish someone in the United States would utter a peep for them -- not scribblers and yakkers like me, but an official. If it can’t be the president, how about a congressman, how about anybody? Someone willing to express the solidarity, or at least the best wishes, of the American people?He likes to keep a low profile, following the example of his ex-president father, but I nominate George W. Bush.• According to reports, the Iranian economy is in free fall. Hurray, I guess. But I must tell you something: One reason I prize Magnitsky sanctions is that they target individuals -- wrongdoers, human-rights violators, villains -- not populations at large.Will our sanctions on Iran backfire? Will they cause a pro-American population to turn against us and rally to their oppressive regime? I don’t know.But these are questions that policymakers always have to weigh (and I’m sure ours have).• The temperature is awfully high in America now -- I’m not talking about the weather, although the heat, in some places, has been rough. I’m talking about politics, and race in particular.This is only 2019. How about 2020, when the presidential election is in full swing? How much higher can the temperature go? Will America be able to take it, without combusting?For years, through the Reagan administration, Michael Kinsley predicted “a long hot summer” -- because people would rebel against the depredations of the Reaganites, essentially. The long hot summer never came. Kinsley, to his credit, joked about it.Anyway, I hope the summer of 2020 is on the cool side, but I’m not predicting it (especially having no training in meteorology).• For reasons I could explain, I went back to a book review I wrote in 2017. I covered two books, actually: a collection by Gertrude Himmelfarb and a collection of Kenneth Minogue. In this review, I quoted Roger Scruton, and I think I will do a little pasting -- copying and pasting.Here goes:> Scruton, after Minogue’s passing, wrote an appreciation, saying, “In many ways he was a model of the conservative activist. He was not in the business of destroying things or angering people. He was in the business of defending old-fashioned civility against ideological rage, and he believed this was the real meaning of the freedom that the English-speaking peoples have created and enjoyed.” Scruton also said, “For Ken Minogue, decency was not just a way of doing things, but also the point of doing them.”> > That is an unusual, striking sentence, worth pondering.Yes. I am thinking of David French, my friend and colleague, who has been attacked as -- well, too decent to be a real conservative, and to get things done. David was moved to write a piece called “Decency Is No Barrier to Justice or the Common Good” (here).David is a warrior -- in the courtroom, on the battlefield (the literal one), in journalism, and in still other arenas. But he’s not a jackass, which a lot of people resent.(I understand them, so help me. I touched on this in an article earlier this year, here.)• Look, far be it from me to comment on wine -- I have no standing. (Whines, yes; wines, no.) But President Trump tweeted, “I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!”My feeling is: Maybe we give them this one. Wine. If we Yanks need to boast -- “where there’s never a boast or brag” -- there are other things . . .• Speaking of tweets, I loved one from Tiana Lowe of the Washington Examiner, formerly of National Review. She was reacting to a story headlined “Is it weird for adults to visit Disney parks without kids? Twitter fiercely debates.” She wrote, “I just cannot imagine having the energy to care if other people minding their own business went to an amusement park.”This reminded me of something George Bush said, a long time ago. (I mean Bush the Elder.) It went something like this: “One reason I’m a conservative is that I don’t toss and turn nights, worried that someone, somewhere, is having a good time.”(I realize that today’s Right does not consider Bush to have been a conservative. During his career, however, he was a right-wing monster, at least in the eyes of the Left.)• Care for a little language? Here’s a golf article from Reuters. The headline: “Koepka dominates one-sided bout with McIlroy in Memphis.” If you have “dominates,” you don’t need “one-sided.” That’s redundant.But I loved a phrase within the article -- one that is new to me: “. . . McIlroy missed a short birdie putt at the third hole from inside four feet and never recovered, his body language the only evidence needed that he was not quite on-song.”On-song. Must be a Britishism. A good one.• Here’s an old-fashioned word: moxie. More and more, I admire this, as one of the best qualities. It came to mind when I was reading this piece by Will E. Young, who was a student journalist at Liberty University. What moxie this kid had, and has. It’ll stand him in good stead as he journeys onward.• Some names? I have a new young colleague named Chris Tremoglie -- Three Wives. I said, “Ah, a bigamist!” This week, I got a letter from a man named Cinquemani. I said, “Thank you, my five-handed friend!” (He replied, “That would have made Grandpa smile.”)As regular readers know, I’m fond of names, and always interested in them, and I bet these two names have very good stories behind them, unknown to us moderns.• Every day, I hear talk of “privilege.” And, almost always, people mean the material. If I were the exhorting type, I would exhort all parents: Make your children “privileged” -- with good books, good music, good games, good humor, sound morals, and, above all, real love.• I saw a photo the other day and thought -- and said -- “Magazine-worthy.” It was snapped by our Molly Powell -- National Review’s Molly Powell -- who lives in New Hampshire. With her permission, I share it with you.A bit of New Hampshire on a late afternoon, with bee balm and daylilies gracing the stage:

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

For years now, some of us have said, “It’s amazing he’s still alive.” We’re talking about Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition. (The previous such leader, Boris Nemtsov, was murdered within sight of the Kremlin in 2015.) Over and over, Navalny has been attacked -- physically, that is. In the past few days, it is possible he has been the victim of a poison attack.They’re not shy about poisoning, Putin’s guys. (For a story about Navalny, go here.)A question: What if Navalny dies? What will the reaction of the rest of the world be, and of the United States in particular? (Years ago, we enjoyed the designation “Leader of the Free World.”) Will there be a shrug, as in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? A statement of regret from the State Department? Something a bit sterner, possibly?Will a mouthy, conscientious member of Congress say something?These are things to be thought of, even now.Last year, President Trump was asked who ought to be held accountable for the Khashoggi murder. “Maybe the world should be held accountable,” he answered, “because the world is a vicious place.”Next time, we will do better, I hope.• Here is a report from last week:> A prominent LGBT rights campaigner has been found dead with multiple stab wounds and signs of strangulation in the Russian city of St Petersburg.> > The body of a 41-year-old woman was found in bushes near her home in the city on Sunday, local police said.> > Relatives and friends later named the victim as Yelena Grigoryeva . . .> > Ms Grigoryeva, who had reportedly received death threats, regularly campaigned for human rights in Russia.They are possibly the most careless people in the world, these Russian activists. They keep losing their lives.• In this new era of strongmen, who will defend democracy? Who will stick up for it, even fight for it? Look to the streets of Hong Kong and Moscow, where democracy protesters are being beaten by thugs. I admire them no end -- the protesters, that is, not the thugs. Would I be among those protesters? Would you?For myself, I can’t answer with confidence.I wish someone in the United States would utter a peep for them -- not scribblers and yakkers like me, but an official. If it can’t be the president, how about a congressman, how about anybody? Someone willing to express the solidarity, or at least the best wishes, of the American people?He likes to keep a low profile, following the example of his ex-president father, but I nominate George W. Bush.• According to reports, the Iranian economy is in free fall. Hurray, I guess. But I must tell you something: One reason I prize Magnitsky sanctions is that they target individuals -- wrongdoers, human-rights violators, villains -- not populations at large.Will our sanctions on Iran backfire? Will they cause a pro-American population to turn against us and rally to their oppressive regime? I don’t know.But these are questions that policymakers always have to weigh (and I’m sure ours have).• The temperature is awfully high in America now -- I’m not talking about the weather, although the heat, in some places, has been rough. I’m talking about politics, and race in particular.This is only 2019. How about 2020, when the presidential election is in full swing? How much higher can the temperature go? Will America be able to take it, without combusting?For years, through the Reagan administration, Michael Kinsley predicted “a long hot summer” -- because people would rebel against the depredations of the Reaganites, essentially. The long hot summer never came. Kinsley, to his credit, joked about it.Anyway, I hope the summer of 2020 is on the cool side, but I’m not predicting it (especially having no training in meteorology).• For reasons I could explain, I went back to a book review I wrote in 2017. I covered two books, actually: a collection by Gertrude Himmelfarb and a collection of Kenneth Minogue. In this review, I quoted Roger Scruton, and I think I will do a little pasting -- copying and pasting.Here goes:> Scruton, after Minogue’s passing, wrote an appreciation, saying, “In many ways he was a model of the conservative activist. He was not in the business of destroying things or angering people. He was in the business of defending old-fashioned civility against ideological rage, and he believed this was the real meaning of the freedom that the English-speaking peoples have created and enjoyed.” Scruton also said, “For Ken Minogue, decency was not just a way of doing things, but also the point of doing them.”> > That is an unusual, striking sentence, worth pondering.Yes. I am thinking of David French, my friend and colleague, who has been attacked as -- well, too decent to be a real conservative, and to get things done. David was moved to write a piece called “Decency Is No Barrier to Justice or the Common Good” (here).David is a warrior -- in the courtroom, on the battlefield (the literal one), in journalism, and in still other arenas. But he’s not a jackass, which a lot of people resent.(I understand them, so help me. I touched on this in an article earlier this year, here.)• Look, far be it from me to comment on wine -- I have no standing. (Whines, yes; wines, no.) But President Trump tweeted, “I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!”My feeling is: Maybe we give them this one. Wine. If we Yanks need to boast -- “where there’s never a boast or brag” -- there are other things . . .• Speaking of tweets, I loved one from Tiana Lowe of the Washington Examiner, formerly of National Review. She was reacting to a story headlined “Is it weird for adults to visit Disney parks without kids? Twitter fiercely debates.” She wrote, “I just cannot imagine having the energy to care if other people minding their own business went to an amusement park.”This reminded me of something George Bush said, a long time ago. (I mean Bush the Elder.) It went something like this: “One reason I’m a conservative is that I don’t toss and turn nights, worried that someone, somewhere, is having a good time.”(I realize that today’s Right does not consider Bush to have been a conservative. During his career, however, he was a right-wing monster, at least in the eyes of the Left.)• Care for a little language? Here’s a golf article from Reuters. The headline: “Koepka dominates one-sided bout with McIlroy in Memphis.” If you have “dominates,” you don’t need “one-sided.” That’s redundant.But I loved a phrase within the article -- one that is new to me: “. . . McIlroy missed a short birdie putt at the third hole from inside four feet and never recovered, his body language the only evidence needed that he was not quite on-song.”On-song. Must be a Britishism. A good one.• Here’s an old-fashioned word: moxie. More and more, I admire this, as one of the best qualities. It came to mind when I was reading this piece by Will E. Young, who was a student journalist at Liberty University. What moxie this kid had, and has. It’ll stand him in good stead as he journeys onward.• Some names? I have a new young colleague named Chris Tremoglie -- Three Wives. I said, “Ah, a bigamist!” This week, I got a letter from a man named Cinquemani. I said, “Thank you, my five-handed friend!” (He replied, “That would have made Grandpa smile.”)As regular readers know, I’m fond of names, and always interested in them, and I bet these two names have very good stories behind them, unknown to us moderns.• Every day, I hear talk of “privilege.” And, almost always, people mean the material. If I were the exhorting type, I would exhort all parents: Make your children “privileged” -- with good books, good music, good games, good humor, sound morals, and, above all, real love.• I saw a photo the other day and thought -- and said -- “Magazine-worthy.” It was snapped by our Molly Powell -- National Review’s Molly Powell -- who lives in New Hampshire. With her permission, I share it with you.A bit of New Hampshire on a late afternoon, with bee balm and daylilies gracing the stage:

July 31, 2019 at 11:30AM via IFTTT